Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac (born February 6, 1972) is a former

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician. She served as a

member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for the Bloc Québécois in the riding of

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot (formerly known as Saint-Hyacinthe and St. Hyacinthe—Bagot) is a federal electoral district that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1935. It is located in Quebec, Canada. Its population in 2006 ...

from 2007 to 2011. She was the first

Vietnamese Canadian Vietnamese Canadians ( vi, Người Canada gốc Việt; french: Canadiens vietnamiens) are Canadian citizens of Vietnamese ancestry. As of 2016, there are 240,615 Vietnamese Canadians, most of whom reside in the provinces of Ontario, British C ...

ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons."NDP, Tories score upsets in Quebec byelections"
canada.com, September 18, 2007.

Early life

Born in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

to a

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...

family,Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac aspire à présider le PQ
/ref> Thi Lac was adopted at age two by a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

family and grew up on a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

near Acton Vale.

Career

Prior to her election, she worked for her predecessor, Yvan Loubier, as an executive assistant in his constituency office.

Political career

She was elected to the House of Commons of Canada on September 17, 2007, as the Bloc Québécois candidate in the Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot by-election, defeating the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate Bernard Barré. She acknowledged that

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

was a factor at the outset of her campaign, but stressed her local roots by joking that having grown up on a farm, she was the only candidate in the race who knew how to castrate a

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

. She later credited her willingness to simply talk to people as her most effective strategy: She was re-elected in the 2008 election, but was defeated in the 2011 election by

Marie-Claude Morin Marie-Claude Morin (born January 25, 1985 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec) is a Canadians, Canadian politician, who was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2011 Canadian federal election, 2011 election. She represented the electoral distr ...

of the New Democratic Party.

Electoral record

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people Bloc Québécois MPs Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Francophone Quebec people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec People from Saint-Hyacinthe Vietnamese emigrants to Canada Canadian politicians of Vietnamese descent Women in Quebec politics 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians {{BlocQuébécois-MP-stub